Musings, observations, and written works from the publisher of Eckhartz Press, the media critic for the Illinois Entertainer, host of Minutia Men, and the writer of "The Living Wills", "$everance," "Just One Bad Century," "Father Knows Nothing," "The Radio Producer's Handbook," and "Records Truly Is My Middle Name"

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I won't be posting on the blog for the rest of the weekend because I'm heading out of town and going to New Orleans with the family.

Just One Bad Century will still be going strong in my absence (brand new material every day), but this blog and my Father Knows Nothing blog won't return until Tuesday...when my actual body returns to Chicago.

*On the day that the big 3 hitters in the Cubs lineup all homer (Rogers Hornsby, Hack Wilson & KiKi Cuyler) to beat the Pirates 4-3 in Wrigley Field, President Herbert Hoover authorizes the building of the Boulder Dam. It's later renamed "The Hoover Dam."

********************1969

The Cubs are in the midst of one of their most memorable seasons.

*Ron Santo knocks in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth (with a sacrifice fly) to beat the Pirates 5-4 in Wrigley Field on the same day that Warren Burger is sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

********************1984

The Cubs are hoping to make the playoffs for the first time since World War 2.

*Jody Davis walks with the bases loaded and the Cubs beat the Pirates in the bottom of the eleventh inning at Wrigley Field. Meanwhile, Susan Lucci is trying to decide which dress to wear for the Daytime Emmy Awards, certain that she couldn't possibly lose the Emmy for the fifth year in a row.

********************1989

The Boys of Zimmer are taking Chicago by storm.

*The Cubs get crushed in San Francisco by the Giants (12-2) at the same time Susan Lucci gets crushed at the Daytime Emmy Awards...losing for the tenth year in a row.

"Great post on the Samdberg game. I had no idea McGee hit for the cycle that day! Those were unbelievable Cardinals teams. I was there too-SRO on 1st base side most of the game with my sister & dad. We jockeyed for empty seats with a bunch of sailors from Great Lakes, who looked as if they just arrived at the ballpark from the set of a 1950's Jerry Lewis Navy movie. It's almost hard to believe how effortless it was to go to a Cubs game then. Saturday afternoon; national TV game; Leon Durham's Sports Illustrated cover had just been published; "hey, let's drive in to the city without tix and go to the Cubs game!" Do people still do that? I think Cubs season attendance peaked at just over 2.1M in 1984. It was less than 1.5M the prior year. Now 3M+"

"Thirty-one percent of working dads would leave their jobs if their spouses or significant others earned enough money to comfortably support the entire family. Although that's a sizable percentage, it's a slight drop from last year's 37 percent and a significant drop from 2005's 49 percent."

69% would rather work? And they say that Germans have a ridiculous work ethic.